Chapter 237: The case of the purloined Olympic-loan documents

This the latest: One of the city clerks who works with the councillors has sworn an affidavit saying that the missing documents relating the the $100-million Olympic loan turned up in B.C. Lee’s office at a different time than he has said.

Cecelia Smith says B.C. Lee called her into his office around 4 p.m. on Oct. 16, two days after they went missing, and said he had just found the missing documents. on his desk But until now, everyone has said they didn’t turn up until later in the day.

Based on that evidence, city “investigators” had been looking at who came in to the secured area where councillors’ offices were in the early evening. Some mischievous soul at the city, according to a TV report last night, leaked the news that only two councillors had used their card-swipe keys at that point and one of them was Raymond Louie.

So Louie called a news conference today, clearly on the warpath as a result of that little tidbit, after Cecelia called up the Vision campaign and offered to swear an affadavit.

I’ve met Cecelia many times over the years, by the way, and she’s a quiet, professional staffer who doesn’t get embroiled in what can be a pretty gossipy workplace. I was surprised when I heard that it was her, because she’s sort of reserved and it takes a huge amount of guts to basically say that an elected councillor and city investigators have their facts wrong. There is no whistleblower protection at the city.

Besides being another bizarre twist in this whole story, this latest chapter is also another sign of how much damage is being wreaked at city hall. Someone with confidential information about the city investigation is leaking stuff; now low-level city staff are getting involved.